Friday, September 08, 2006

Can we trust him now?

President Bush gave a speech this week in which he acknowledged the existence of secret prisons for terrorists. I happened to see most of the speech “live”. A couple of comments:

He continues to want to scare us. I don’t know how many times he used the phrase “they want to kill innocent Americans”. Apparently he thinks that the more afraid we are the more likely we are to support his policies.

It seems he has forgotten or doesn’t believe that the terrorists also want to “kill innocent Europeans”. We weren’t even mentioned. I guess we don’t count. (I have a double nationality: half of me is afraid, half of me doesn’t count.) When is he going to realize that the world is bigger than Crawford, Texas?

And he wanted to assure us that the CIA is doing great work: they are arresting terrorists, squeezing the information out of them, and using that information to save thousands of “innocent American lives”. And of course, we don't torture..........

I remember that he once told us with the same look in his eye and tone of voice that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. We could trust the CIA and U.S. intelligence on that one, according to him.

We couldn’t then. How do we know we can now?

(Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not suggesting that Bush deliberately lied regarding Iraq. Born-again Christians don't deliberately lie ;-). But apparently the CIA, U.S. intelligence and the American government was not capable of providing us with trustworthy intellingence information. If they couldn't then, how do we know they can now?)

1 comment:

What I don't understand is why prisons have to be secret if there is no torture.....And, will there ever be an explanation for why "suspected terrorists" (many of which turn out to be innocent civilians) are held for years at a time without charges or trial?And, did we ever get an adequate explanation for the government tapping civilian phones? I still get the chills sometimes when I talk on the phone and think that my private conversations could be listened to by some guy some where.Lots of questions.....I am not so scared of the terrorists as much as I am of the unilateral power of my own government. (Hopefully I won't end up in jail for those comments, ha ha)